The old AT&T is back

The old AT&T is back. Slate and others are reporting on the new "Ma Bell" which is made up of all the "Baby Bell" companies that were created in 1984 when the monopoly was destroyed by antitrust regulators in the US. Since 1984 we have seen a lot of change in the industry. Since then we have seen the deployment of cellular telephones, the Internet and satellite distribution on a mass scale.

The reporters for Slate are worried this may curtail development of new Internet companies if Net Neutrality goes by the wayside. Personally I think this is a bad thing if that were to occur. Net Neutrality means the phone company merely distributes information but does not modify it's contents. AT&T has agreed to let "net neutrality" remain for a period of 2 years as a condition of their buyout of BellSouth.

Here in Canada my ISP, Shaw (or more specifically SJRB for my commercial account), has given up on providing a neutral network. They monitor all of my network traffic and crush any file sharing I do in addition to degrading the service of VOIP calls to promote their own product (which is more expensive than the competitors). This is disappointing as I spend a good fortune purchasing their services each year but something I am willing to live with because I do not do a lot of VOIP or file sharing. When they come knocking on my door for other services I may be shopping for a new ISP. Good thing AT&T isn't an option for me.